Liuget unthinkably good, Bolts' D better

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) loses the ball as he is hit by San Diego Chargers defensive end Corey Liuget during the first quarter of an NFL preseason football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. The 49ers retained possession when it was ruled an incomplete pass. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The Associated Press

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) loses the ball as he is hit by San Diego Chargers defensive end Corey Liuget during the first quarter of an NFL preseason football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. The 49ers retained possession when it was ruled an incomplete pass. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

SANTA CLARA  How cool would it have been to see what Corey Liuget could have done for an entire game on Sunday?

Not as cool as was to see what he did do and then see him on the bench, accepting congratulations from teammates, smiling . . . and healthy.

On a defensive line consisting of questionable depth and beset by injury, there could hardly be any better sight for the Chargers than Liuget actually being what Liuget has always been capable of being.

This kid is a beast. And the beast is unconscious.

“When you’re playing your best game . . . what are you thinking about?” Liuget said after fitting a sack-fumble, tackle for loss, two other tackles and a pass deflection into just 24 snaps. “You can’t even tell someone. You weren’t thinking, you’re just playing. That’s what happened today.”

If what he did in dominating a quarter-plus of a 21-7 exhibition loss to the San Francisco 49ers is a preview of what he’ll be doing in his fourth NFL season, the Chargers defense has a much better chance of being as good as it hopes it is (and needs to be).

As a whole, the Chargers’ first-team defense played longer and played better than it did nine days earlier in Seattle, where it was pushed around by the Seahawks, who led 24-0 in the second quarter.

The Chargers got pressure, forced a turnover (almost two) and tackled. And rather than six or 10 or 20 yards downfield, those stops were frequently at or behind the line of scrimmage.

“The whole entire defense, they came ready to play," head coach Mike McCoy said. ". . . We got embarrassed last week, and they answered. We challenged them, and this is the type of defense we want to be, the way we played today.”

Much of the disruption was done by Liuget.

He dropped Frank Gore for a two-yard loss on the game’s first play and ended the 49ers’ second series by dislodging the ball as he sacked Colin Kaepernick. Kendall Reyes fell on the ball to give the Chargers possession at San Francisco’s 14-yard line.

Then came a sequence of plays at the start of the second quarter in which Liuget essentially single-handedly forced the 49ers to settle for a field goal.

On a first down at the Chargers’ 17, Liuget swatted a Kaepernick pass that fell harmlessly to the ground. On the next play, Liuget pushed 49ers’ All-Pro guard Mike Iupati backward and wrapped up LaMichael James for a four-yard loss. Liuget finished the third-down play, an incompletion, with his arms wrapped around Kaepernick’s legs.

That would be Liuget’s final snap of the game, almost certainly his final play of the preseason.

That virtually assures he will start this season fully intact, unlike after a sensational sequence in his final exhibition action last summer.